‘Atarot, Jaba (Lil), Qalandiya, Mon 30.11.09, Afternoon
Monday was the last day of the Id al Adkha holiday. All afternoon Qalandiya CP was crowded with families and individuals, dressed in their finest and carrying gifts, on their way to visit relatives in Jerusalem and celebrate the holiday together. Unfortunately, the authorities who run the checkpoint seem once again to have been caught unawares and unprepared (or perhaps, uncaring). Although three passageways were working all afternoon, they were not working efficiently and the wait was interminable, both in the northern shed and afterwards in the passageways. There was no way of opening the "humanitarian gate" for the mothers leading multiple children, some sitting in carriages. Instead the mothers were forced to fold the carriages and hold their infants, as well as their packages, in their arms and squeeze (literally) slowly through the narrow metal cages that funnel people into the carousels (turnstiles) leading to the passageways. We saw several instances of families arriving at Qalandiya and, despairing at the crowding and the length of the wait, turning around to head back home. Just another example of the casual inhumanity practiced so casually at the checkpoint. Happy Holiday!!!!
15:15: The line of cars at Atarot CP reached beyond the turn in the road. Soldiers were checking drivers' papers selectively.
15:30 – Qalandiya: About 90 people were waiting in the northern shed, lined up in the 3 "cages" and spilling over into the shed itself. Inside the CP three passageways were active. Along with the female soldier operating the gates, three policemen were in the booth in the shed. Nothing at all seemed to be moving.
15:44: Two civilian guards playfully "attacked" the booth with automatic weapons at the ready, joining the four already inside. We called CP Headquarters to ask if something couldn't be done to speed up passage of the CP. Shortly thereafter the carousels were opened and about half of those waiting in the shed were allowed to enter the CP. One of the policemen in the booth came out and with no apparent reason shouted at those standing in the line nearest the booth that the line was closed. Then he turned to the soldier operating the carousels and signaled to her to close it. We immediately started to phone for help and when he saw this he went back inside watching us…and then suddenly the turnstile reopened. If the line had been closed, the people who had been waiting there for at least 20 minutes to enter the CP would have had to go to another turnstile where they would have been last in line.
15:55: After new arrivals, there were now more than 100 people in the northern shed with more coming in all the time, many women with young children and entire families. Once again the carousels were opened and swiftly closed once again, separating a 3-year old from his mother caught inside. We tried to attract the attention of the policeman in the booth to the crying youngster but he was impervious.
16:09: The lines are still very long. None of the peddlers selling refreshments from their wagons are at the CP today – perhaps they're celebrating the holiday. The only one present is the ever-smiling "coffee man".
16:20: Two women arrive with 4 children in tow and an infant sleeping in his carriage. We ask the soldier, through the fence and the closed booth windows, if she could please open the humanitarian gate. The soldier actually tries, calling someone on the phone to ask how to help. But in the end she shrugs her shoulders to show there's nothing she can do. And the women slowly thread their way through the cage and finally fold the carriage up when they get to the carousel.
16:29: A middle aged woman arrives carrying a 10-year old boy whose leg is bandaged from knee to ankle. The boy, a Jerusalem resident who was visiting his friend in Qalandiya, had been playing outside and fallen from a boulder and the woman was trying to take him through the CP and return him to his family so that he could get medical care. Once again the soldier in the booth shrugged her shoulders at her inability to help, but she did open the carousel and allow everyone in that line to enter until the woman herself, still carrying the 10-yr. old, had entered the CP.
16:37: There were still more than 100 people waiting in the northern shed to enter the CP.
16:40: We spotted the woman with the 10-yr. old as she returned without him. She said she had delivered him to his parents who had taken him to Hadassah Hospital.
16:57: There were still more than 100 people waiting in the northern shed to enter the CP.
17:10: We left Qalandiya to return to Jerusalem. There was a line of 11 vehicles at Lil/Jabba CP with more arriving all the time. There was a huge traffic jam on the way to Hizmeh, but at the CP itself the traffic was moving slowly but surely.
'Atarot
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Atarot
Atarot was a workers' settlement destroyed during the War of Independence, where the Arab village of Qalandiya now stands, in the southwestern part of Atarot Airport, built by the British Mandate. After 1967, the Atarot industrial zone was established nearby, and until the completion of the wall from the Qalandiya checkpoint to Road 443, a checkpoint was in place. A new Jewish neighborhood is currently planned for the old airport area.
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Jaba' (Lil)
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Jaba' (Lil) In fact, the Jaba checkpoint is east of the Qalandiya checkpoint. Its declared purpose is the prevention of Israeli citizens from entering Area A. A road checkpoint for vehicles, located on Road 65, borders the southern fence of Kfar Jaba, about three kilometers east of the Qalandiya checkpoint, on the road leading to the settlement of Adam on Road 60. Archaeological excavations within the village found the remains of a cloth house from the First Temple period. The events that led to the construction of the checkpoint are precisely here: on the day of the abduction of Gilad Shalit and before the outbreak of the Second Lebanon War, a 17-year-old man from one of the settlements was abducted by a Palestinian cell. His body was found several days later at the entrances to Ramallah. A military investigation revealed that his abductors had taken him along this route. The checkpoint was set up to prevent future kidnappings and to warn settlers from traveling to Ramallah and entering Area A (which is forbidden for Israelis). The checkpoint that operates around the clock. Usually only vehicles traveling in the direction of Ramallah are inspected. (November 2016): Every morning, when the settlers en masse travel to Jerusalem on Route 60 and every afternoon they return from Jerusalem on Route 60, the army initiates a traffic jam at the entrance to the Jaba checkpoint and stops the movement of Palestinians traveling toward Route 60. (February 2020): In the last two years the checkpoint has not always been manned. Sometimes the soldiers come and just stand, sometimes they come and stop and check those who enter the village, sometimes they patrol the alleys of the village, sometimes they fire stun grenades and gas and sometimes they invade houses and stop young people, say those passing through the Hazma checkpoint. (Updated February 2020)
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Qalandiya Checkpoint / Atarot Pass (Jerusalem)
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Click here to watch a video from Qalandiya checkpoint up to mid 2019 Three kilometers south of Ramallah, in the heart of Palestinian population. Integrates into "Jerusalem Envelope" as part of Wall that separates between northern suburbs that were annexed to Jerusalem in 1967: Kafr Aqab, Semiramis and Qalandiya, and the villages of Ar-Ram and Bir Nabala, also north of Jerusalem, and the city itself. Some residents of Kafr Aqab, Semiramis and Qalandiya have Jerusalem ID cards. A terminal operated by Israel Police has functioned since early 2006. As of August 2006, northbound pedestrians are not checked. Southbound Palestinians must carry Jerusalem IDs; holders of Palestinian Authority IDs cannot pass without special permits. Vehicular traffic from Ramallah to other West Bank areas runs to the north of Qalandiya. In February 2019, the new facility of the checkpoint was inaugurated aiming to make it like a "border crossing". The bars and barbed wire fences were replaced with walls of perforated metal panels. The check is now performed at multiple stations for face recognition and the transfer of an e-card. The rate of passage has improved and its density has generally decreased, but lack of manpower and malfunctions cause periods of stress. The development and paving of the roads has not yet been completed, the traffic of cars and pedestrians is dangerous, and t the entire vicinity of the checkpoint is filthy. In 2020 a huge pedestrian bridge was built over the vehicle crossing with severe mobility restrictions (steep stairs, long and winding route). The pedestrian access from public transport to the checkpoint from the north (Ramallah direction) is unclear, and there have been cases of people, especially people with disabilities, who accidentally reached the vehicle crossing and were shot by the soldiers at the checkpoint. In the summer of 2021, work began on a new, sunken entrance road from Qalandiya that will lead directly to Road 443 towards Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. At the same time, the runways of the old Atarot airport were demolished and infrastructure was prepared for a large bus terminal. (updated October 2021)
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